The present invention relates to travel management system in general and to management of mobile boarding passes and similar electronic check-in passes in particular.
In many known mobile computer applications, the user receives messages on a mobile device comprising a link to information available on a network. The message may be an SMS, an email message, WAP push and the like. Such a link may include a URL link to a server that generates an XML or HTML web page comprising a barcode. Such a barcode may be a mobile boarding pass.
Mobile boarding passes are usually delivered according to IATA PSC(30)792 using 2D barcodes embedded in an HTML page. Airlines typically publish the boarding passes on the web at a unique URL address and provide the passengers that URL by sending the URL to a mobile phone, via. SMS, e-mail, WAP push or similar messaging mechanism. When the user clicks on the URL, a request is sent to the unique URL address in which the barcode is published. The request comprises the identification of the type or specifications of the mobile device. Upon receiving the message, an HTML or XML page comprising the barcode is generated. Generating the image is based on the type of the mobile device, since the image is adapted to the screen of the mobile device. The generated page is sent back to the mobile device, usually as an HTML or as an XML web page.
The barcode is used to identify the passenger and/or the flight ticket and allow checking into the flight. To access the boarding pass the passenger is required to locate the message in the inbox, open the message, and click the URL to download and display the web-page. The barcode can then be presented to a barcode reader for identification purposes. The server of the airline company may dynamically generate the bar code upon request The barcode may be dynamically generated in order to make the barcode compatible to the identification of the device. Such identifications may be, for example, the size and type of the screen of the device and the like.